Fantasy or Reality?: A Look at the Best NHL Fantasy Team So Far This Season

Like most NHL fanatics, you probably signed up for a fantasy league at yahoo.com or some office shindig.

Well, odds are you are doing great—or terrible. Don't worry, I am in the latter predicament.

My team was doing great until my No. 1 draft pick Martin Brodeur was injured, leaving me with Carey Price. With a couple more injuries to Pavol Demitra and Mike Komisarek and the rather disappointing plus-minus of Todd Bertuzzi, I found myself in 10th place this week out of 12 teams.

Well, I want to warn those who are ignorant to the goings-on of the NHL. I make this my plea to those who wish to claim glory among strangers or co-workers. The rules of my league are as follows—goals, assists, plus-minus, penalty minutes, power-play points, and shots on goal for the skaters. For the goalies, it goes by wins, goals-against average, save percentage, and shutouts.

The format is head-to-head in the 10 categories, and points are accumulated throughout the season. So if I lead a week in goals, plus-minus, shots on goal, and goals-against average, but my opponent leads in all other categories, he wins that week 6-4. (If a category is tied, the point doesn't count.) The player with the most points wins at the end of the season.

This is the format I play in, and the one I am most accustomed to. Here I will give you the best team possible and some tips on players you can snatch up from free agency.

Enjoy.

Now I am sure your league holds a draft in which, one by one, you go down the list of players you would like. So I am going to try to make it as realistic as possible. Chances are your fellow league members are as knowledgeable as you are in the happenings of the NHL.

For this team I will choose two lines (six forwards and four defencemen) with an additional three players to cover injuries and other such happenings, as well as three goalies. That's a total of 13 starters.

Now I will start with the first line. This is the line that gives you the most production in all areas of your league.

You want to look at your forwards to give you the majority of your goals and assists. Look to your RW, or anyone from your top line, to give you a lot of SOG and PPP. Your top defenceman should also have a large number of SOG with offencsive production. A large number of PM would be a plus, but I will address that later.

Left Wing

Your first-line LW should be a great one, someone who can contribute a lot of assists while still putting the puck in the net. Hopefully, you got an Alexander Ovechkin with his 17-23-40 and 170 SOG—an NHL leader. He may not have the point production of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby right now, but his SOG and G statistics will prove vital in the long run. His plus-10 isn't bad either.

If you are not lucky enough to have Ovechkin, Thomas Vanek would be a terrific pick. He leads the NHL with 24 goals and he has an impressive 111 SOG, though his plus-two isn't that great and his 22 PM might be shaggy.

I recommend Dany Heatley, who is surging in all categories, or Alexander Semin or Simon Gagne who have over 30 points each and stand at plus-18. Their SOG might not be that great, but it's worth it in the end.

Right Wing

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